Developments in LED technology have resulted in the development of “high powered” LEDs having light outputs on the order of, for example, 70 to 80 lumens per watt, so that lighting units comprised of arrays of high powered LEDs have proven practical and suitable for high powered indoor and outdoor lighting functions, such as architectural lighting. Such high powered LED lighting units may comprise arrays of selected combinations of red, green and blue LEDs and white LEDs having different color temperatures and the color or color temperature outputs of such LED array units may be controlled so that the relative illumination level outputs of the individual LEDs, in the array, combine to provide the desired color or color temperature for the lighting unit output. The individual LED lighting units are available in a wide range of illumination distribution configurations, such as spot, flood and linear distributions, and of various sizes and power levels. As a result, the arrays or the configurations of variously configured LED lighting units may provide virtually any desired lighting function or illumination distribution.
A recurring problem with such architectural lighting arrays, however, is the planning, installation, management and/or control of the array of the lighting elements, particularly given the variety of types and configurations of LED lighting units currently available. It will be appreciated that these problems increase significantly with the size and complexity of the lighting arrays and with such factors as the dynamic control of the architectural lighting displays to provide lighting effects that vary with time.
The present invention provides a solution to these and related problems associated with the prior art.